Blog Archives

Growing Connections: Roots to Branches

Arizona and its communities face challenging problems with diminishing resources. How do communities do more with less? Green Infrastructure is a solution multiplier that provides cost effective solutions to many economic, social and environmental problems. All Arizona communities and businesses have a role in cultivating a healthier, more livable and prosperous future.

Presentations and a Discussion on Cultivating Green Infrastructure

The Regional Tree & Shade Summit will bring together municipal and private sector professionals for a one-day meeting to address the growing importance of regional tree and shade plans and green infrastructure to the long-term sustainability and success of our communities.

[Source: City of Phoenix Planning Department] — Phoenix is updating its General Plan — the comprehensive guide for all physical aspects of the city. The city’s Planning Department asks you to participate in this process to help create the future.

As part of the 2009 centennial celebrating the 100th anniversary of ecologist Aldo Leopold’s arrival in the Southwest, Arizona State University’s Institute for Humanities Research will host a month-long institute for college and university faculty who teach Leopold, environmental ethics, sustainability, eco-criticism, environmental history, ecology, and related studies. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the institute will be held in Prescott, AZ, June 22 to July 17, 2009. Up to 25 participants will be accepted, and each visiting scholar will receive a $3,200 stipend to cover transportation and lodging.

A goal of the institute is to help faculty develop new lines of research and curricula by examining “A Sand County Almanac” and Leopold’s other writings from a variety of disciplinary perspectives — history, ecology, literature, and philosophy, for example. The core faculty members include some of the nation’s most respected Leopold scholars, among them J. Baird Callicott, Susan Flader, Curt Meine, Julianne Lutz Newton, and Scott Russell Sanders. For information, click here or call the institute’s co-director Dan Shilling at 602-300-6694.

[Source: Associated Press] — Air quality officials say fewer construction industry trucks and workers kicking up dust may be one of the reasons the Phoenix area recorded fewer bad air days in the past two years. Two years ago, monitors in and around Maricopa County registered unhealthful readings for particulate pollution on 27 occasions. But since then, air pollution levels have exceeded the federal health standard far less often — only 11 times in 2007 and eight times so far this year.

The slowdown in the construction industry is likely a significant reason for the lower numbers, officials say. “I think it has to be a factor, but I don’t know that it’s the only factor,” said Holly Ward, a spokeswoman for Maricopa County’s Air Quality Department. Tougher enforcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and increased awareness may also be helping the situation. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

[Source: Casey Newton, Arizona Republic] — Great global cities of the future must make sustainability a top priority, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley told Phoenix residents on Tuesday as part of an Earth Day event. “Cities are no longer enemies of the natural environment,” Daley told about 200 people at a luncheon at the Phoenix Convention Center. “They’re leading the way in preserving and protecting it.”

The luncheon was part of Valley Forward‘s fifth-annual Livability Summit. The summit included a series of speeches and discussions with the theme of “Healthy Living in the Desert.”

Daley, who has served as Chicago’s mayor for almost two decades, described a series of efforts the city has made in recent years to improve the environment in Chicago, its suburbs and beyond. The efforts include rooftop gardens on high-rise buildings that lower temperatures in the summertime, allowing them to be cooled with less energy. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]